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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

I discuss the benefits of Twitter and developing a Personal Learning Network with school administrator, Tom Whitford and teacher and instructional technologist, Victoria Olson. Wanna connect with Tom and Victoria on Twitter? If so, you connect with Tom here: (@twhitford) and Victoria here: (@MsVictoriaOlson)

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Dr. Jennifer Polk runs From PhD to Life, a site dedicated to assisting doctoral students with the transition from academia to the real-world. Part of a feature of her site, Jennifer does Q & A series with folks who have doctorates, but have decided to pursue careers outside of academia. As you can tell from the title of this post, I am one of the folks included in the series.

Here is a sample of my Q & A on From Phd to Life:

What did you hope for in terms of employment as you completed your PhD?

Originally, I had hopes of becoming a professor and one day leading a digital learning center or institute at a university. That all changed once I started doing the research on adjunct pay and benefits. (There are no benefits.) I soon realized that becoming a university professor wasn’t in the cards for me. Especially because I have this terrible habit of liking to eat and having a place to live.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

I talk withRyan Penafrom Capella Universityabout my experiences as a former learner. We also talked about how technology, such as Google Hangouts can be used to enhance the learning experience of students.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Have you heard of Class Dojo?Do you have colleagues that love it?Would you like to know more about it?

Class Dojo is a handy service that can easily be added to your
digital toolbox, and be used daily in your classroom.www.classdojo.com offers both desktop and
mobile applications (iOS and Android) for ease of use and convenience.Class Dojo is designed to be used as a
classroom management system to track both positive and negative behaviors using
points.Once you create your free
account you create your classes and enter your students' names.Each student has a customizable avatar you
can choose one of the many avatars provided, or import your own.Next you create a list of positive and
negative behaviors.Each behavior
corresponds to an icon, and you can customize behaviors to meet the needs of
your classroom.Be specific with the
behaviors you choose to include, as this will make your reports the most
accurate.Your class roster, behaviors,
avatars, and point displays are all easy to edit after your initial class
set-up.Parent codes are available for
parents to create an account to view their child’s progress.So... that’s the gist of the program.

Here’s how it worked for me this year:

I work on a team with 2 other teachers in a 70’s style open
classroom/pod set-up. Back in August we decided that we didn’t like our
management system that we had been using, and we agreed that we’d try Class
Dojo out.We liked the paperless aspect,
the ease of parent connections, and the fact that Class Dojo went with us
everywhere via our iPads and iPhones.

We each have our own classroom, but we have no doors to separate
our classrooms from one another.We
rotate classes within the pod.For
example, I teach kindergarten Language Arts and first grade math.So I see different kiddos at different points
during the day.In order to keep all
info on all of our students we all share one Class Dojo account with 3 classes;
kindergarten, first grade, and second grade. So far, the app and desktop version have been
handling all three of us logged on simultaneously pretty nicely.

Initially, it was difficult to remember to use Class Dojo while
teaching, and working with students.However, it didn’t take long for the students to catch on and look for
Class Dojo being projected on the board.Their enjoyment in seeing their name on the screen with a +1 beside it
was incredible.As a team, we learned
the incredible power of an encouraging point, and how it inspired not just the
recipient of the point, but most of the class.Our students responded quite well to Class Dojo, and while accruing more
and more points was enough of a goal for most we decided to incorporate some
additional awards based on points; sticker, lunch buddy, extra playground
equipment.We reset our students' points
at the end of the month, but you can reset them whenever you choose.You can even choose to reset points by individual
students.

The data and reports gathered by Class Dojo is quite possibly the
most incredible aspect of the whole program.The reports are generated by Class Dojo, and show points received and
lost, sorts behaviors, and shows trends by time and day.This data is perfect for RTI (Response to
Intervention).

The people behind Class Dojo are always listening, changing, and
upgrading.They want to hear any and all
suggestions and they have made numerous changes throughout this school
year.Class Dojo has been a great
addition to my classroom, and I’m excited to use it again year after year.

About the author: Erin is a K-2 teacher in a Multi-Age classroom set up. She primarily teaches kindergarten language arts and first grade math. Erin completed her masters degree in Instructional Media last year with Wilkes Universityand Discovery Education. She strives to use tech in her classroom to help students share, create, and collaborate. Erin live in Hickory, North Carolina with my husband, Jeff and son, Lucas.

Sociologist and digital learning expert Diana Rhoten founded the New Youth City Learning Network to help organizations like museums and libraries design digitally-enabled learning activities built to tap into kids' interests and teach 21st-century skills. More resources at http://www.edutopia.org/diana-rhoten-...

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Arfah is 22 year old born and bred Newham resident. Always involved in endless projects and passionate about youth empowerment has led her to co-found Discoverables a new website that helps young people find and develop their key skills and strengths and share them with potential employers. Empowering and equipping them to be resilient to tell their story their way. Arfah will be doing a quick 3 minute talking about how to build the resilience muscle by gamifying your life.

Thursday, June 6, 2013

About the author: Dr. Will Deyamport, III, Ed.D. is a connected educator who specializes in digital media learning and development. His research is in using web tools and social technologies for professional development, teaching and learning, and social good. Dr. Will works as an instructional technologist for a school district in Hattiesburg, MS.

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